Jul 7, 2014

GAMEPLAY: Simplistic, you'll only be pressing a few keys the entire time (namely "z"). The game relies heavily upon resource managment and patience. In order to get suspects, you'll have to talk to NPC's. Talking to NPC's drains your food so you'll have to look out for money to purchase food, see what I mean? While spamming "z", you'll undoubtly pick up a few clues, which will help narrow down potential suspects. Both clues and a suspect list can be found in your notebook. The key is to find tons of clues and not jump the gun by hastely arresting someone. I'd liken to something like Dark Souls, where the more you play the better you'll get, but starting off you'll have almost no idea what to do.

STORY:
Also rather simple, you're a PI looking for a killer and you get to do whatever you want, including not even bothering to look for him/her. Do you want to rob the mob? Go ahead. Want to murder everyone you meet? Buy some more bullets. There is a wide variety of options to choose from when you actually get into the game and whether you solve the case or not depends on making smart choices that won't kill you.

GRAPHICS:
If there would be anyone to complain about pixel art, it would be me. Despite this, I can't help but feel an affection for Noir Syndrome. It might be the stellar soundtrack or loving attention to detail, but the pixel art never bothered me. This might not be the case for you, but at very least you can appreciate the absolutely wonderful soundtrack.

MUSIC:
As stated before, wonderful. I regreted not purchasing the soundsrack version of this game that's available on the developers site.

OTHER:
There's a wonderful mode in this game called "Dinner Party". It's essentially a more hectic version of the game, with all the suspects already on your list and the only thing you have to do is find clues. Well, you also have to survive the other guests who go insane quite easily. It's quite an enjoyable mode, and if you get bored of the original gamemode then it's something that will interest you.

To the Developer (CRITICISM):
First off, thank you for creating this game! It's obviously a labor of love, and your time and effort spent on the game has not been in vain.
There a few minor things that can be added or changed to make Noir Syndrome a slightly more enjoyable game.

1. Able to deselect suspects from the menu. Once you've clicked on a suspect, you can only change which suspect is selected, rather than being able to deselect a suspect entirely. (ADDED IN UPDATE 1.4) Going off this, I think being able to cross off names would be very useful. It would eliminate some of the hassle of having to check every suspect's occupation This is obviously a minor thing, but it's worth mentioning.

2. Because you lose food from talking to NPC's, you'll always be losing food. This unfortunately means that you'll also be losing food when talking to vendors, quite ironic if you're buying food. The Apple vendor is essentially a giant waste of money, apples, while the cheapest food at $2, recover such a small portion of food that you'll always be stuck at "hungry" or "starving" because you'll need to talk to him more to buy more apples. The apples either need to be boosted in how much food they give or food vendors don't cause you to lose food when talking to them. (FIXED IN UPDATE 1.4)

Those are the only things that have stayed on my mind through the time I've spent in Noir Syndrome, but I'm sure other people have problems as well. As of writing, this review currently is at the top of the review page and as such if you find major problems with the game that aren't technical (direct these to the forums), leave a comment and I'll add it to this section.

OVERALL:
I recommend it. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it's compotent, well made, and it has a loveable style to it. If you enjoy games like Clue and L.A. Noire, it's definitely worth checking out.